82 REPTILIA AND AMPHIBIANS OF THE CAIRN DISTRICT. 
in some suitable hole in a tree root or crack in a wall. In 
appearance it is brown and warty looking, and when alarmed 
has the power of causing an acrid secretion to exude from the 
pores of its skin, which is supposed to cause a slight — 
to the animal molesting it. 
9. Frog (Rana temporaria), the paddock or puddock.—The 
common frog is very widely distributed throughout the parish, 
and may be seen in great numbers during the breeding season in 
any suitable pond. There is a pond of this kind on Dardarroch, 
called Waterloo, where I have counted many hundreds at 
that season, and listened to their monotonous croaking, the pond 
being kept constantly astir with heads bobbing up and down. 
Later in the season one finds them, especially during wet 
weather, scattered over hill and dale, when their brilliant coat is. 
sure to attract the eye. Their food consists principally of slugs, 
snails, and insects, which are captured by the frog suddenly 
throwing forward the tip of the tongue, which is covered with a 
viscid secretion. Its curious mode of breathing led us as boys 
to imagine it was about to spit upon us, but it is merely its 
natural method. 
The Edible Frog (Rana esculenta), so far as I know, is not 
found in Scotland, though it is in England, especially in Cam- 
bridgeshire and Norfolk, where it was introduced about 1837 
to 1842. 
NaTuRAL History NOTES FROM ANNANDALE. By Mr J. W. 
PAYNE. 
Since coming to live at Annan, rather more than eighteen 
months ago, I have taken considerable interest in observing the 
wild life of Lower Annandale, chiefly in the bird life of the 
locality, and have noticed one or two differences in the avi 
fauna as compared with the coast line of, say, the neighbouring 
Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, with which I am more familiar. I 
do not take the birds in any particular order. 
Here I may be allowed to repeat the notes I made upon the 
ideal situation of the Solway as a vantage point for the study of 
bird migration. 
The Solway area is considered by many experts on the 
subject to be one of the best in the British Isles for carrying on 
